Former Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited promoter, CEO and MD, Malvinder Singh on Thursday lashed out at Daiichi Sankyo, saying the Japanese drug major was levelling “baseless charges” against him, having failed to manage the company properly.

In an interview with FE, Malvinder said that at no stage had he concealed any information relating to investigations by the US department of justice and the Food and Drug Administration. “Nothing was kept away from them (Daiichi Sankyo). It was they who approached us to buy the company; there was proper due diligence, long dialogue, all papers relating to US DoJ and FDA were shown to them.”

“Now, after five years to hear from them that we concealed information from them is totally baseless,” a visibly upset Malvinder said. He said that everything relating to the FDA was in public domain; so there was no way anything could be concealed.

Malvinder claimed that Ranbaxy was a professionally run company, built over decades and Daiichi has reversed that by levelling baseless charges.

Asked whether he would initiate legal action against Daiichi, he said that it all depends on what the Japanese company does. “At this stage, I am only responding to their press release issued on Wednesday levelling charges against former promoters concealing information relating to US FDA and DoJ. Any further action would be based on what they choose to do.”

On Wednesday, Daiichi Sankyo, which acquired promoters' 34.8% stake in Ranbaxy for $4.6 billion in June 2008 had said that former shareholders of the company “concealed and misrepresented critical information concerning the US DoJ and FDA.” It added: “Daiichi Sankyo is currently pursuing its available legal remedies and cannot comment further on the subject at this time.” The statement came a week after Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to felony charges by the US authorities and agreed to pay a fine of $500 million.

Asked whether he regrets selling out, Malvinder said he was certainly disappointed the way the company has been run. “It hurts today. They got a fantastic company, which they couldn't take forward to a brighter future. And today having failed, they are blaming me. This is not done,” he said.

Malvinder said he has never commented on the company's affairs since he stepped down as CEO and MD in May 2009 and was only doing so now because baseless allegations have been hurled at him. Asked if there was any communication between him and Daiichi on FDA-related